Abstract: Attentional bias in major depressive disorder is an important problem in cognitive research of depression. This article discussed it in several aspects including paradigm, character of attentional bias and theory explaining, according to paradigms, there were Stroop, probe-detection and cue-target several paradigms; according to character of attentional bias in major depressive disorde, it included that the object should be clinical patients, needed long exposure time and the intensity of the stimulus shouldn’t be too low et al; according to the theories of attentional bias, there were attentional element, attention narrow with focusing, cognitive load and arousing level et al. The article also discussed the future research field at last

Key words: major depressive disorde, attentional bias, selective attention, cognitive bias